One of the most curious, and ominous, aspects of life in the Bush gang's Babylonian satrapy has been the continual, unrelenting and clearly deliberate targeting of Iraq's academics, intellectuals, technicians – basically, anyone who might be capable of independent thought and action, transcending the sectarian, ethnic and tribal cliques empowered by Bush's aggression, and outside the control of the occupiers and their sycophants as well.

The sectarians, such as the Shiite death squads enthroned by Bush, want to get rid of the intelligentsia because they stand in the way of the fundamentalists' desire to impose religious obscurantism on Iraqi society. In addition, many of the intelligentsia – though by no means all – are Sunni, owing to the prejudice in favor of Sunni advancement under the old regime. Meanwhile, certain factions of the Sunni insurgency (which contains its own religious fanatics) also target the intelligentsia in order to make the nation ungovernable under the occupation. Meanwhile, the Bush animus toward any independent thought that might challenge the murderous fantasies of the Leader is also well-known.

In other words, to be an independent thinker in Iraq, educated and
capable of taking effective action in civic society – the supposed goal
of the "liberation" for all Iraqis – actually makes one an avowed enemy
of all the factions either deliberately empowered or inadvertantly
loosed in Iraq by Bush, including the land's most powerful faction: the
White House, backed up by the U.S. military, which Bush has turned into
his own private militia, serving the financial, political and
ideological interests of his own little clique, at the expense of the
peace, prosperity and liberty of the American people.

The new "surge" ordered by Bush has only accelerated this purging of the Iraqi intelligentsia, as the Sunday Times reports.
The "sovereign" Iraqi government – whose security organs are in large
part scarcely distinguishable from the Shiite death squads – are using
the "crackdown" to ramp up the brain drain, harassing, robbing and
beating academics.

But this is to be expected. As Arthur Silber succinctly notes,
no good thing can come from America's criminal enterprise in Iraq.
Conceived in evil – in lies, in the lust for blood, loot and dominion –
it can only breed more evil. And it will go on breeding evil, on scales
large and small, for as long as it is allowed to continue. Silber's
conclusion is the whole and utter truth of the matter: "We should never
have been there. Get out now. Make what reparations we can. If we have any remaining sense of decency at all, that is all we can do -- and what we must do."

Excerpts from the Sunday Times: The security forces separated the
men from the women and then ordered [Mohammad] Jabouri’s wife to give
them a suitcase filled with jewellery and £20,000 in cash. When she
argued they threatened to shoot her. Then they destroyed the furniture
and broke the windows of the cars in the garage. “The same militiamen
who used to raid our areas in the past are now conducting the security
crackdown, using this as a chance to attack us further,” Jabouri said.

Later the same night, security forces raided a compound containing the
homes of 110 university professors and their families. Professor Hameed
al-Aathami described what happened: “They dragged us out of our beds as
we slept with our wives and children, took us outside, bound our hands
and blindfolded us. They beat, cursed and insulted us.”

Dr Salah Bidayat, the dean of the school of law, fired two shots from
his licensed gun in the air to get the soldiers’ attention. “They
caught him, lay him on the ground and proceeded to beat, kick and curse
him in the most aggressive manner and when he explained we were
teachers and professors they told him you are all a bunch of asses and
terrorists,” Aathami said.

“They gathered all the men in the centre of the compound and proceeded
to their homes, where they broke furniture, stole money, mobile
telephones and jewellery as we sat outside listening to our women and
children scream and cry,” he said.

“It was very hard for us to go through this. This is the security
crackdown they have been bragging about. There is no such thing as a
security plan; it is all an attempt to rid the country of the few
remaining educated and decent people,” said Aathami, who is planning to
leave Iraq as soon as he can.